On October 10, 2025, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) officially extinct, the first global extinction of a once-widespread migratory bird. The announcement, made nearly 30 years after the bird’s last confirmed sighting in Morocco, marked a grim milestone in conservation history, drawing attention not only to the fragility of migratory species but also to the urgent implications for Africa’s wetlands, coasts, and migratory flyways that sustain millions of other birds still clinging to survival.
The bird’s disappearance, confirmed after exhaustive global surveys yielded no trace of it, represents more than the loss of a species. It is the silencing of a sentinel, a migratory messenger that once traversed the skies between the Siberian tundra and North Africa’s wetlands. The last verified individual was seen at Merja Zerga, a Ramsar wetland in northwestern Morocco, on February 25, 1995. Since then, the marshes where flocks once fed have steadily shrunk under pressure from agriculture, pollution, and encroaching development.
This extinction carries both ecological and moral weight for Africa. The continent sits at the crossroads of major migratory routes connecting Europe, Asia, and the southern hemisphere. Every year, over 2.1 billion migratory birds depend on African wetlands and coastal systems for breeding, feeding, or wintering. Yet many of these stopover habitats are under threat. From the shrinking Inner Niger Delta in Mali to the degraded mudflats of Lake Burullus in Egypt and the polluted estuaries of the Niger Delta, the story of habitat loss repeats itself, a story that mirrors the slow disappearance of the Slender-billed Curlew.
According to the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Africa has already lost about 35% of its wetlands since 1970, primarily due to unsustainable land reclamation, irrigation projects, and urban expansion. These ecosystems are not merely bird sanctuaries; they are also critical buffers against drought and flooding, supporting millions of livelihoods. Their destruction thus represents both an ecological and socioeconomic crisis.
Amy Fraenkel, Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), described the extinction as “a tragic and sobering moment for migratory bird conservation.” But beyond the grief lies an opportunity, a chance to reflect on what the Slender-billed Curlew’s loss teaches us about our collective stewardship.
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The bird’s range once spanned 30 countries, from Siberia’s nesting grounds to the wetlands of Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt, before looping back north each year. In 1979, the species was among the first listed under the CMS Appendices, signaling international concern even then. By 1994, when the last known flock was estimated at fewer than 50 individuals, a Memorandum of Understanding was adopted under the CMS to safeguard its remaining numbers. Despite this, years of inaction and fragmented enforcement allowed its decline to spiral into extinction.
The broader implications for Africa are stark. The continent’s wetlands host more than 500 migratory waterbird species under the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), including species like the Curlew Sandpiper and Broad-billed Sandpiper, both of which have now been uplisted on the IUCN Red List due to population declines. In East Africa, the Curlew Sandpiper’s numbers in key sites such as Kenya’s Sabaki Estuary have fallen by nearly 50% over the past two decades, reflecting similar pressures: pollution, loss of tidal flats, and unregulated hunting.
Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of AEWA, emphasized that “two-thirds of bird species are in decline,” a figure that resonates across African landscapes where climate variability is accelerating habitat loss. For instance, in the Sahel region, where lakes such as Chad and Fitri have shrunk by more than 80% since the 1960s, entire migratory corridors are collapsing. The consequences ripple outward, fewer birds mean fewer natural pest controllers for agriculture, fewer pollinators, and diminished tourism potential for communities that depend on birdwatching and ecotourism, industries worth an estimated USD 12 billion annually across Africa.
Still, extinction is not inevitable. Conservation science has shown that targeted, well-funded interventions can reverse decline. The Red Kite’s recovery in Europe, credited to community partnerships and strong anti-poisoning laws, underscores this. Africa has its own success stories: the resurgence of the Shoebill in Uganda’s Mabamba Swamp, and the stabilization of the Lesser Flamingo population in Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes after local communities embraced ecotourism and wetland management, are tangible proof that local action coupled with international coordination works.
Yet the continent faces a financing gap. A 2024 report by BirdLife Africa estimated that only 15% of African migratory bird conservation initiatives receive sustainable funding, and most depend on short-term external grants. Meanwhile, habitat destruction outpaces restoration by a factor of five. Without stronger national policies and regional coordination, the fate of the Slender-billed Curlew could become the template for more extinctions.
The coming months will test the global community’s resolve. The 9th Session of the AEWA Meeting of the Parties, scheduled for November 2025 in Bonn, and the 15th CMS Conference of the Parties in March 2026 in Brazil, will provide critical platforms for governments, including those in Africa, to recommit to concrete action. For African delegates, the agenda is clear: strengthen local wetland protection, regulate unsustainable hunting, and integrate migratory bird corridors into national land-use planning.
The extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew is not merely the story of a vanished bird. It is a mirror reflecting our fragmented approach to conservation. It reminds Africa, a continent where biodiversity and human survival are deeply intertwined, that the loss of one migratory species foreshadows a chain of ecological disruptions yet to unfold.
Whether Africa learns from this moment will depend on decisions that determine whether future generations will still see flocks tracing ancient migratory paths across the continent’s skies, or only read about them in the footnotes of extinction lists
